The reporting of “incidents” is often of great value in recognizing potential problems before the persons involved go further along the same paths, too often with tragic or unfortunate results. Early recognition of problem personalities or trends can provide opportunities for intervention and prevention of more serious activities. Incidents of all sorts occur frequently in social circumstances, such as in schools or the workplace, where stress can lead to escalation, and escalation can lead to violence. The problems relate to groups which include three of the largest segments of the population; children attending school from age five through eighteen, students attending secondary school and those employed. The latest U.S. census estimates that 73 million Americans are in school and 134 million are in the workplace. Those in charge of security and the well being of the persons in these situations often have a “need to know” about incidents which might seem minor, but can be the harbinger of events of greater consequence.
Difficulties occur in the handling of report and in encouraging observers to make the incidents known to those in authority, however. These difficulties arise in areas of collating and correlating the incidents and in maintaining secrecy and the privacy of the persons involved, whether they are the perpetrators or the witnesses. There is frequently a fear factor involved among witnesses, as well as a general reluctance to get involved or to be seen as a “snitch” or troublemaker. Overcoming obstacles to reporting incidents, and providing a structure for discrete and efficient handling of reports is accordingly a matter for concern.
A major concern in modern society deals with these incidents, especially in light of trends of violence in the workplace and educational institutions. Today, violence, including sexual assault and harassment, is so prevalent in the workplace that, in many organizations it has become an accepted fact of life.
The National Center for Victims of Crime reported 709 homicides in the workplace during 1998 and 13 million workers say they are concerned about the behavior of a coworker they think could become violent. Twenty-five percent of workers said their company offered training on workplace violence, sixty-five percent said theirs did not, and nine percent said they did not know if work had offered any training or help. Nine percent of workers reported an assault or other violent act in their workplace in the past year, and eighteen percent reported a threat or verbal intimidation, three out of every four say they are getting no guidance on how to prevent violence or how to recognize the dangers of violence [National Center for Victims of Crime, 1999].
These astounding figures suggest that more than 12 million acts of violence and 24 million threats or verbal intimidations occur each year [US Department of Education and Justice, 1998]. Only 25 percent of the companies surveyed have begun, in some way to address violence at work [Business Controls, Inc., What Every Employer Should Know About Workplace Violence, 2000]. While many companies have begun to recognize the need to address the potential for violence, it is evident that they are looking for a starting point. The inventor, Eugene F. Ferraro, CPP, CFE, is a pioneer in developing methods to address violence in the workplace. Over the last ten years Mr. Ferraro has developed the training programs and protocols to recognize and address the potential for violence in the workplace. Almost as an after thought others within the Security Industry saw the opportunity to establish anonymous employee “hotlines”. Most of them were established without thought as to who might use them and how they would be used. Mr. Ferraro took a step back, analyzed the effectiveness of what have come to be labeled “snitch lines” and developed a new concept and a new standard. After years of research he developed an anonymous incident reporting service that is easy to use, reliable and completely confidential.
The threat to students and young people is not new. Throughout 1997, students age 12 through 18 were victims of about 202,000 serious violent crimes at school (i.e. rape, sexual assault, robbery, and aggravated assault). This same group was also victimized by 898,000 less violent crimes at school. While the data reported for 1998 by 481 four-year colleges and universities indicate that 1,240 forcible sex offenses, 159 non-forcible sex offenses, 1,068 robberies, 2,267 aggravated assaults, 13,745 burglaries, 4,160 motor vehicle thefts, 539 arsons, 170 hate crimes, one manslaughter, and 20 murder incidents occurred on campuses with more than 5,000 students [Chronicle of Higher Education, 2000].
The problem for students attending primary schools could even be greater:                1. In 1996, students K-12 were the victims of approximately 3 million thefts or violent crimes at school.        2. Every hour, more than 2000 students and 40 teachers are attacked while on school property.        3. On any given school day in this country an estimated 200,000 students carry a gun to school.        4. Over 200,000 students don't go to school every school day because of fear of being bullied [U.S. Department of Education and Justice, Annual Report on School Safety, 1998].        
The study and research by Dr. Kelly Zinna reveals:                1. School children of all ages have clear concerns about their safety at school.        2. In almost every case of schoolplace violence, someone knew of the threat before violence erupted.        3. School children and college students are not afraid to become involved and report threats if they can remain anonymous.        4. Schoolplace anonymous incident reporting systems are an essential component to any meaningful schoolplace safety program [K. Zinna, After Columbine, Spectra Publishing, 1999 and Excel Communications 2000].        
As such, the need for services relating to incident reporting and correlation could not be greater. Everyone is at risk and no one feels safe. Unfortunately however, educators, teachers and employers have responded by calling for more guards, locks and cameras. It is only a matter of time until the value of anonymous incident reporting systems will be fully recognized.
In light of the great need for finding ways to obtain and correlate information on preliminary incidents, as a tool for preventing violence and harassment, and the general lack of success in overcoming these by mere security presence alone, there exists an opportunity to refine and improve the methods. In particular, methods for encouraging greater participation in reporting, and creating a greater degree of witness confidence and safety is needed.